GenCon and the Baggie

This year is my 11th attending GenCon. I just got home after picking up my badge and event tickets. I have to admit that I wasn't impressed with Andon taking over the running of the convention from TSR. I realized that Wizards was going to make changes after buying TSR, but Andon seemed bent on trying to ignore any tips that TSR employees were willing to give. After this morning, my feelings have been slightly changed.

This year is my 11th attending GenCon. I just got home after picking up my badge and event tickets. I have to admit that I wasn't impressed with Andon taking over the running of the convention from TSR. I realized that Wizards was going to make changes after buying TSR, but Andon seemed bent on trying to ignore any tips that TSR employees were willing to give. After this morning, my feelings have been slightly changed.

I arrived at the Midwest Express Centre at just before 10am this morning to get my badge and the little baggie of freebies. I was told by a very helpful staff member that I would have to wait until noon to get my badge. Expecting something on this order, I had brought a book and some extra smokes. However, Andon was able to get everything set up and ready well before noon. I ended up being able to be back on the road heading out of Milwaukee by noon. Andon employees walked up and down the line handing out the baggie of freebies so that we wouldn't get too bored in line.

The baggie contained the usual flyers advertising booths in the Great Hall. Of special note was the freebie from a new Collectible Card Game. U.S. Games which will be at booths 1149-1151 as devised a CCG based on PEZ of all things. Included with the sample card was a free PEZ refill. That's marketing for you. I don't care very much for CCG's but since they have given me candy for my tummy, I will be sure to swing by their booth and give the game a look. The only other CCG giveaway in my bag was a card from the Dragonball Z game from Score. I got a Gohan card and a copy of the rules. I like Dragonball Z, but I doubt that I will look into their game.

TSR included a couple of items in the bags. They put in the first issue of the Living Greyhawk Journal. This gives background information on the Greyhawk setting and character generation rules for RPGA's Living Greyhawk game. They also included a copy of the conversion methods for 2nd ed AD&D to 3rd ed D&D. I appreciated that, as I won't have to print out the PDF file that is on the CD I received with the last issue of Dragon.

My impression of Greyhawk is a bunch of old dirty geezers sitting around in regal kingdoms, waiting for the court jester to throw his hand. A hand that held politcal intrigue for games to come. It seems stodgy, and perhaps, too "serious".

Let me tell you a tale of the company that was known as Tactical Studies Rules...

back in the early 80's TSR published the Greyhawk Gazeteer - the industry's first campaign world. It was a report folder containing a number of glossy 11x17 hex-ruled color maps, and a thin booklet, consisting of a _short_ history, a couple of pages describing trees, and a large number of _brief_ country descriptions. And that was it. Just a skeleton of a world, waiting to be fleshed out by the various DMs.

And, of course, greyhawk was the setting for _all_ of the original 1st Ed. AD&D adventure modules - A1-4, G1-3, D1-2, C1-3, etc.

Then, in the mid-to-late 80's, Gary Gygax left the company. Shortly thereafter, TSR began using the Forgotten Realms campaign by Ed Greenwood. A much more detailed setting, it took a box set to get the core description down, and that provided a fully-fleshed out world for GMs to run their campaigns in.

During the 90's TSR focused almost all of its efforts on the Forgotten Realms, letting their Greyhawk legacy lag behind, and lurk in the corner. Players didn't use Greyhawk much, because _TSR_ didn't use it much.

Now, almost 20 years later, after TSR is owned by Hasbro, Greyhawk is released again, for GMs and DMs to flesh out as they please.

I used both campaigns, and I much prefer FR. Morbus has it down, there's something a little too Conan the Destroyer about Greyhawk. They did, in fact, try to resurrect it, but FR had gathered too much steam.

Since I know FR isn't to everyone's tastes, and seems to have a slightly modified set of rules from even AD&D2, I would have preferred to see a whole new world, rather than one that kills interest from any group due to old prejudices.

I remember the old folio old geezer. I still have mine. I also still have my box set for Dungeons and Dragons with the blue cover and dice chits.

I have to say that I would have agreed with Morbus et al about Greyhawk lacking something compared to Forgotten Realms. I just played a 3rd Edition game of Living Greyhawk this morning at Gen Con, and had a lot of fun. I realize that there are literally hundreds of gamers who can't do without Elminster and his little world, but I think I am going to enjoy returning to Greyhawk.

It would have been cooler if they had come up with another new world to play in, but they probably decided that it would be too expensive. I can't say for sure, but it also looks like the took Greyhawk and aged it a couple of hundred years from the first release. A statue of a Griffin which I seem to remember being a proud part of the City of Greyhawk, is now toppled and half submerged in a river flowing through the city.

I really think that Greyhawk is going to work out. For whatever reasons, TSR really wants to push it again. They've even listed the deities from Greyhawk in the Player's Handbook. For better or worse, it's here to stay. Also, the new rules work beautifully. I loved actually playing with them.

I never make full use of pre-established settings for my games. Wheres the intrigue and mystery if the players can just go pick up a copy of the boxed sets and know everything that the DM knows? No fun there.

Also, I found FR to be a little too restrictive. With an 35th Level Uber NPC in every little town to make sure that the PC's dont have an oppertunity to change anything, and Ultra-Magic in place to make sure they have no impact on their surroundings, its like walking around a museum. Sure the stuff looks beautiful, but you can only have so much fun looking at it from behind the ropes.

I never played GH much. Just a few games. I liked how they used Orcs and such, but after a little research Ive found that it was more due to the 1st Ed rules then the innovation of the setting.

Basically, I suggest this. Go generic. Take bits and pieces from all media that you like, including pre-established settings, and mix them up into a wonderful soup that is your own original setting.

"They've even listed the deities from Greyhawk in the Player's Handbook."

I have even more of a problem with this than I do with Greyhawk as the "default" world. 2nd Ed at least had the advantage of the PHB being non-world-specific. While it limited their ability to flesh out specialty priests in that book, they did a great job with the pantheon-building stuff in the Priest's Handbook.

Well, see that's the whole fun of it. If they want to make up a set of well balanced deities, than so be it. It saves me the effort of trying to think of decent names. And hell, if I don't like one, I'll mess with it. It's my world, dammit, and you won't take that away from me.

I've *never* played in FR, mainly because I'm afraid of "NO! You can't do that! Look, right here! On page 143 of the second book of the GodEaters trilogy. AND I QUOTE: 'tavern stools were always in the north part in this area, primarily because the sun rose in the south'. Cheater! Cheater!"